There is nothing
more upsetting than being misled by a film’s marketing campaign, and coming to
this realization in the middle of a disappointing film experience. From the
action-packed trailers of Atomic Blonde,
one might have expected that the film would be the female equivalent to the John Wick franchise, but in actuality it
is far less an action movie than it is a spy film that just happens to have a
few action sequences. But since the trailer shows all of these action sequences
and little else, audiences may be disappointed by how much of the movie is
missing this intensity and by how many of the key sequences were already seen
in the advertisements. There is still a decent film in Atomic Blonde, but it doesn’t feel like the same one that was
promised by the high-octane marketing campaign.

A year after
finding monumental success at Universal Studios with Frankenstein (1931), James Whale reunited with Boris Karloff to
make The Old Dark House. What first
appears to be one of the first haunted house films actually sets up the
template for another horror genre that would primarily become popular in the
1970s with movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There are no real
supernatural events in The Old Dark House,
and the only monsters are the disturbed humans that occupy the gothic estate.
When a group of normal men and women find themselves stranded by a storm, they
must survive the night and their abnormal and potentially dangerous hosts.

What it lacks in
narrative depth, Broken Sword Hero
makes up for in visual spectacle. Easily one of the best shot Thai films I have
ever seen, it also features nearly non-stop martial arts action throughout the
film. Although the story is often repetitive and almost inconsequential,
varying styles of fighting and interesting cinematography to capture it keep
the film engaging for much of the lengthy run-time.

Straddling the
line between a faith-based film and a romantic comedy, The Good Catholic sets up a conflict in its premise that is
destined to disappoint one of the two target demographics. This is not to say
that it isn’t done in a thoughtful way, but by forcing the main character into
a situation where he must choose between love and faith inevitably creates a
rivalry between spirituality and worldly pleasures. On the other hand, this is
a film unafraid to integrate issues of religion into its storyline in a way
that is refreshing, even if the more pious viewer may take issue with the
casualness of the depiction.